UnityPoint Health sought to enhance its medication refill processes to reduce costs and increase caregivers' time with their patients. The organization adopted the Health Catalyst Embedded Refills™ application, which streamlined the medication refill workflow, leading to increased efficiency in medication refills, decreased labor costs, and ensured accuracy was maintained.
UnityPoint Health provides care to metropolitan and rural communities across Iowa, western Illinois, and southern Wisconsin. With 17 regional hospitals across seven different service regions and more than 370 clinics, the organization manages millions of medication refill requests annually, requiring it to continually evaluate processes to improve efficiency.
UnityPoint Health implemented the Health Catalyst Embedded Refills™ application, directly integrating medication renewal decision support into the EHR workflow and streamlining the medication refill workflow. The centralized refill team worked with providers to determine which refill requests the central team should manage and which requests, such as requests for controlled substances, should be routed for provider review.
The refill team standardized the data team members’ review to determine if the medication refill request could be processed and established patient handoff processes, ensuring patients who have outstanding care, such as laboratory tests or results, receive the needed care.
UnityPoint Health successfully increased medication refill efficiency and decreased labor costs while maintaining accuracy, increasing the time providers and clinic staff spend with patients. Medication refill requests managed by the centralized team are processed in just 1.5 minutes.
"The value of our work goes beyond the $3.1M in cost savings. We’re quickly meeting patient needs and increasing our caregivers' time with their patients."
Anna Keller, BSN, RN, Executive Director, UnityPoint Ambulatory IntelliCenter
